Defense Department to store sensitive documents in the cloud

The Department of Defense is preparing to store sensitive data using “cloud” server technology and is trying to find vendors interested in powering the service.

While Amazon’s cloud service has already received provisional authorization to store lower-level Defense files, the announcement would be the first time “level six,” or highly classified, information has been considered for cloud-based storage and distribution by a private company.

Although it could improve the efficiency of the DoD, consumer and enterprise-grade cloud implementations would not be secure enough to protect high-level data.

To address this problem, the DoD is considering two strategies for ensuring that documents are kept safe. The first is to allow companies to lease floor space from the DoD which would be used to install physical servers on-site. The second would have cloud providers send server equipment in sealed containers to the DoD, which would set them up.